Monday, October 19, 2015

Some Soccer News for Oct 19, 2105

Huge congrats to Rochester Rhinos on winning another USL championship.
-I really miss they days when that team was a huge rival for Minnesota.

dN

In the NASL over the weekend Minnesota gacked up one of the biggest hairballs I have seen in a long time.
-Yes MNUFc was without 3 starters but can that really make a difference that overwhelming?
-The team tactics were a mess. Were there any team tactics? I didn't see any. I saw a lot of laziness.
-For a team that could claim 1st place in the league those guys on the field sure didn't seem to care at all.
-As a matter of fact they looked exactly like the team that went to Indy at the same time last year, gave the same performance and never recovered. (Last year they won the following week and then didn't win again until the 5th game of the 2015 Spring season - a run of 9 winless games.)
-Two highlights for Minnesota: strong headed goal off a corner kick from Brent Kallman, and 3 highlight reel saves from Sammy Ndjock.
-T-shirt I saw for sale at a gas station in Illinois on Sunday's drive home: I drove all the way to Indy and all I got was another rotten road performance by Minnesota United.
-Despite mopping the field with Minnesota on Saturday night Indy Eleven was the first team eliminated from post season play.

dN

Ottawa has all but sealed the Fall championship. They have a 6 point lead over Minnesota with 2 games to play and they have an 8 goal advantage in the differential tie breaker.

dN

Stefano Pinho of Fort Lauderdale Strikers is the NASL Player Of The Week.
-FLS won 4-0 and he scored twice. He has 16 goals this season.

dN

I made a biopsy of the soundtrack that took us down to Indy and back this past weekend. The 27 music tracks range from Cabaret Voltaire to Smokey Robinson to Om to William Onyeabor to Salem to Sleep. (download & extract)

By the end of the weekend only 4 playoff options were still available:
-East(1): New England (47 pts, -1gd) has the advantage over Orlando (44 pts, -9gd) for the last spot.
NER at NYCFC at 4pm CT
-West(3): Kansas City (48 pts, 2 games, +4gd), Seattle (48 pts, +6gd) and Portland (50 pts -1gd) have the advantage over San Jose (47 pts, +3gd) for the last 3 spots.
SKC v CR (on Wed) at 7:30pm CT
PT v CR at 6pm CT
SKC v LAG at 6pm CT on ESPN
SS v RSL at 6pm CT
SJE at FCD at 6pm CT

Who will win the Supporters Shield?
-Red Bulls clinched #1 in the East.
-Dallas clinched #1 in the West.
-Tied on 57 points with identical records - 17 wins, 10 losses, 6 ties.
-NYRB has 60 goals for and 42 against.
-FCD has 50 goals for and 38 goals against.
-With 1 game left Red Bulls has the advantage +6.
-NYRB is at Chicago on Sunday.
-FCD is v San Jose on Sunday.

On national TV next Sunday:
CC v DCU at 4pm CT on FS1
SKC v LAG at 6pm CT on ESPN

dN

Everyone talks as though Sebastian Giovinco is the only candidate for MLS MVP. But Kei Kamara has a pretty damn good case to make too.
-Columbus is ahead of Toronto in the standings.
-Toronto has spent waaaaaaaay more money on their team then Columbus has, possibly making Kamara's job a lot harder.
-Kamara and Giovinco both have 22 goals this season.
-Giovinco has 3 Penalty Kicks. Kamara has zero.
-Kamara has scored his goals in 135 shot, where it has taken Giovinco 22 more.
-They both have 7 game winning goals.
-Giovinco's numbers peaked in July, where Kamara had equal numbers in May and September.
-Where Giovinco pulls ahead is in assists. He has 15 to Kamara's 8.
-Kamara has 2 teammates that really pick up the slack in assists: Ethan Finley has 13 and Federico Higuain has 9.
-Kamara and Columbus went to Giovinco and Toronto on Saturday and pushed their face in the dirt. It might have been the best performance of the year by the Crew.
-Giovinco gets my vote. Kamara gets my strong respect.

dN

Mike Grella scores after 7 seconds! The fastest goal in league history.
-Jon Marthaler made a habit of ripping Grella last year and then piled on early this year. The amount of crow we are eating is bad for the balance of diet.
-If any team would like to hire Jon and I to rip a player and cause a career year for next season just get in touch. We are not that expensive, and we are fool proof.

dN

Robbie Keane of LA has 15 goals in the past 13 games.

dN

Mauro Biello has done a great job leading Montreal into the playoffs. He should have been named head coach a long time ago.

dN

Attendance for MLS in 2015 is up almost 2300 per game. Stats from Soccer America.
-Dallas is the only team with any real drop off and that is only 3%. Still a shame because Dallas has a long way to go to live up to potential.

dN

Steven Goff of the Washington Post gave us this nifty stat this morning:

Premier League: 10 talking points from the weekend’s action by the Guardian. I link to this because its not your standard over-hyped talking points we usually get with Premier League reviews. This is very good in-depth study that you can learn about soccer from. Thank you Guardian editors.